Defining and measuring multidimensional poverty

Description: Poverty is at the top of the development agenda. Proof of this comes in the form of the United Nations? Millennium Development Goals. But why is poverty alleviation important and what does poverty mean? These are questions which are still without a final answer. The first question can be solved by referring to Adam Smith?s words when he says that ?no society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable? (Smith, cited in Easterly, 2007: 756). In this sense, poverty represents a lack of well-being, and is therefore an issue that must be solved by any coherent development policy...